The effort to register the Taiwan Beer brand name as a trademark in China has been thwarted by political intrigue, a Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (TTL,
"I believe there has been political interference regarding the approval of the brand name," said TTL chairman Morgan Hwang (黃營杉) at a press conference yesterday, which was called in response to a statement released by China's Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday.
Li Weiyi (
Despite Li's claim that geographical names can not be included in trademarks, there are a number of Chinese products that include geographical names, such as Tsingtao Beer (
Hwang said that the Taiwan Beer name has been in use since 1946, and has become a notable and distinctive brand name.
"Both sides [of the Taiwan Strait] should set aside ideology and political motivations to promote industrial and commercial exchanges," Hwang said.
The state-run company's predeccessor, the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau (菸酒公賣局) began the registration process of taiwan pichiu (台灣啤酒), or Taiwan Beer, in Beijing in 1999, before the company was corporatized and changed its name in July 2002.
The trademark registration was turned down twice.
In December 2002, TTL re-applied to register its trademark, with no result until Wednesday.
At the same time, the company also applied to register its product under another name: tai pi (
"The matter has not yet been finalized," Hwang said, adding that the company will continue its legal efforts to garner Beijing's approval.
Hwang also called on China to abide by the WTO's rule of "national treatment" and open its market to Taiwan Beer.
National treatment indicates that imported and locally-produced goods should be treated equally -- at least once the foreign goods have entered the market. The same should apply to foreign and domestic services and to foreign and local trademarks, copyrights and patents.
Taiwan joined the the global trade body on Jan. 1, 2002, and China's imported beer brands quickly snatched an 8.4-percent share of the market that year, while Taiwan Beer dropped to its lowest-ever market share of 74.1 percent.
With the launch of Gold Medal Taiwan Beer in April last year, TTL has regained its market presence to achieve an 80 percent slice of the market this year, while Chinese beers have dropped to 4.8 percent.
Hwang said, until last month, 156 million bottles of 13 Chinese beer brands have been imported into the nation while Taiwan Beer's plan to enter the Chinese market remains stalled.
If Taiwan Beer is allowed to hit the Chinese market, Hwang said, TTL might form strategic alliances with Chinese companies, which will allow the company access to local know-how and authorization to manufacture Taiwan Beer in China.
"We hope that Chinese people can also enjoy our internationally-renowned beer," he said.
If the proposal is turned down again, Hwang said TTL would apply for negotiations to be conducted by the Mainland Affairs Council, before filing a protest with the WTO.
"Fair competition is conducive to cross-strait development," he said.
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of